The Well-Tempered Ear
From beginner to maestro — for the Final Forte, John DeMain reflects on a life in music
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By Jacob Stockinger
This Wednesday night, March 6 at 7 p.m. in Overture Hall, is the “Final Forte” — the annual high school concerto competition with the Madison Symphony Orchestra under its longtime music director and conductor John DeMain (below, in a photo by Peter Rodgers).
You can attend the concert in person for FREE or watch it live on PBS Wisconsin or listen to it live on Wisconsin Public Radio.
For more details, go online to: https://madisonsymphony.org/education-community/education-programs/young-artist-competitions/the-final-forte/
As usual you can see and hear summary biographies of and impressive interviews with this year’s four teenage participants (below, in a photo by James Gill) and what they think of the competition. You can also read about the three judges and about past compeiutitons and the winners.
But this year, DeMain opened up about himself to PBS Wisconsin. He talks about why he likes and looks forward to directing the performances by young artists and what he thinks about starting a career in music.
DeMain — who will retire at the end of next season — also draws on his own award-winning career from his first piano lessons though his education at the Juilliard School, his lessons with Leonard Bernstein and his 30-year tenure at the MSO.
Trust The Ear — it is an engaging interview well worth reading for many reasons.
Here is a link to that interview:
Do you anything to say about how DeMain sees working with and encouraging young artists?
About his own career?
The Ear wants to hear.
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Classical music: Michael Keller and Martha Thomas will perform a FREE recital of music for piano-four hands this Sunday afternoon.
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By Jacob Stockinger
On this coming Sunday, Sept. 27, at 3 p.m. pianists Michael Keller and Martha Thomas (below) will be presenting a FREE piano, four-hand program at Christ Presbyterian Church, 944 East Gorham Street, in downtown Madison.
Martha Thomas is faculty member of the University of Georgia Hodgson School of Music.
Michael Keller is a retired professor of piano at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point who is now based in Madison.
The program includes music by Johann Sebastian Bach (“Sheep May Safely Graze”); Muzio Clementi (Sonata No. 1); Franz Schubert (Rondo in A Major); Johannes Brahms (Waltzes, Op. 39) and the “Gazebo Dances” by the contemporary American composer John Corigliano. (You can hear the Overture to the “Gazebo Dances” in a YouTube video at the bottom.)
The program is FREE and open to the public.
Both pianists were students of the late Howard Karp at the UW-Madison School of Music. When they reunited at his memorial last fall, they planned this program.
Tags: Arts, Bach, Baroque, Chamber music, Classical music, Clementi, four-hands, Franz Schubert, Gazebo Dances, Georgia, Howard Karp, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, John Corigliano, Music, Overture, Piano, rondo, Sheep May Safely Graze, Stevens Point, University of Georgia, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, UW-Stevens Point, Waltz, Wisconsin, YouTube
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